


Snow Bank

by cerealbaths (timelordangel)



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Anxious!Link, Friends to Lovers, M/M, college rhink, protective!Rhett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelordangel/pseuds/cerealbaths
Summary: A snowstorm impedes Link's arrival home for the holidays- maybe he shouldn't have left without Rhett.
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39
Collections: Mythical Secret Santa 2020





	Snow Bank

**Author's Note:**

  * For [robyn118](https://archiveofourown.org/users/robyn118/gifts).



Link wonders if there’s a word for it, for the feeling he gets when he sees Rhett at the end of the day in the courtyard behind their dorm building, distracted and tousled, his bag hanging from his arm.

If there’s not a word for it, there’s damn sure a _feeling_ for it. It crawls up his chest and makes him crack a lopsided smile that hangs off his crooked teeth. He finished his last final less than an hour ago, which means the lightness in his chest comes easily when he sees his best friend approaching. 

“Link!” Rhett grins, his shell cracking like the bread being torn apart at a nice restaurant. He's deceptively warm on the inside despite the cold chill in the air around them. They don't really greet one another anymore, but this time the air is laced with pre-Christmas magic and the kind of thrill that only the second to last day of final exams can bring.

And then they talk, absorbed in one another. Nearly fifteen years of friendship and the entire world still shrinks to the two of them when they talk. They talk about the inconsistent winters in North Carolina. They talk about how the meteorologists predicted a warm season this year, and they talk about how they were wrong. They talk until they realize they’re both just staring trepidatiously at the worsening weather and the conversation has died out.

“Come on man, let’s get inside.” 

“Fuck, I dunno if my truck can even get us back to my mom’s tomorrow if this snow keeps pilin’ up,” Link frowns, catching one last look at the falling snow outside of their dormitory.

“Well I have my last final at nine across campus, so, well, it better not!” Rhett shoots back as they step inside and he shakes the snow from his hat. Flakes fall and dissolve on the matted brown carpet.

Link decides to slowly resume packing for the month back home when the dorms shut down. He silently begins working over his duffle bag, counting to make sure he has enough underwear for at least a week.

“Dude,” Rhett scoffs, “That is not how to bring clothes home.” He gestures to the laundry bag filled with his dirty clothes.

“Mom works hard enough, I don’t wanna impose,” Link says softly and continues to sort out the bag.

“My mom has two kids who are about to dump laundry on her and she’ll probably thank us! Moms love having their kids home, man, don’t worry about it. Hell, I’ll give mom your clothes too,” Rhett laughs.

Link frowns and says, “Shouldn’t you be studying?”

That’s met with an eye roll. “Not for this one. I could fail it and still pass the class, I’m just trying to prove to Dr. Carrasco that I’m not a slacker for sittin’ in the back of the lecture hall every day. I’m just freakin’ tall!”

“So I’m waiting until we’re snowed in to go home just so you can prove a point?” Link bites back his attitude. He knows it’s pointless to pick fights with Rhett when his pride is on the line. 

He feels Rhett’s eyes on his neck and he persistently keeps folding, ignoring it. 

“Dude,” Rhett says exasperatedly. “You’re anxious about the snow.” 

“Yeah, what about it?” Link snaps. The anxiety is there, burning in his veins. It replaces the lightness from earlier. Their dorm room doesn’t have any windows, but his mind supplies a helpful image of the snow building an inescapable tower on his old truck outside.

“Fine, then, just go home now. I’ll catch a ride with Derek,” Rhett shrugs. 

Link zips up his duffle. “Is he leaving tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, he’s in the same lecture with me and he’s got a Subaru. I’ll give him gas money.” 

Link considers. On one hand, it’s always been the plan for Rhett and Link to drive back home together, to clean their dorm together and then hit the road and stop for Bojangles for breakfast. On the other hand, if Link waits to get out of here he might end up stuck here until the snow plows make it to campus. 

“Come on, don’t worry about me. Just go,” Rhett says, defeated. “I’ll make sure to drive over to your moms tomorrow evening and say hi, okay?” 

Link concedes, content as long as he gets to see Rhett tomorrow. “Fine, okay. I’ll head out in a bit. Only if you’re sure Derek can take you home?” 

Rhett thunks him in the back with the palm of his hand. 

\---

So Link heads out around ten pm, with his bag in the back and a baseball cap on his head like it’s summertime. His only coat is torn from the time it snagged on a seat in a lecture hall and his boots are worn from hiking in the mountains of North Carolina. He’s excited to see his momma and he forgets to shake the snow from his feet before he hops into the drivers seat. For a second he glances to his right, as if he half expects Rhett to say screw it to his final and get in the cab with him. 

It’s just shy of an hour’s drive home, and it feels silly to be afraid of the snow piling up around him like this. He pulls out of the spot and gets on highway 410. It’s about twenty minutes into the drive when two things happen nearly simultaneously. 

The first thing that happens is that the severe lack of sleep from studying for all five finals over the past three days hits Link like a freight train. He all but slouches in his seat, briefly wondering if he might pass out as the blood seems to drain from his head to the rest of his body. His fingers grip tighter on the wheel and he straightens himself out, which causes the second thing to occur: 

The truck slides on a rogue patch of black ice. 

Link corrects the skid quickly, and fortunately the road is pretty barren of traffic at this hour, but his heart rate quickens rapidly and he slows his speed to 35. _Bum. Bum. Bum._ His heart matches the ticking of his turn signal as he pulls off at the next exit for a breather, consumed with anxiety and drowsiness. This was a bad idea.

“I’ll just get a coffee and be home in half an hour,” he tells himself softly as he pulls off at the dark exit. He regrets his decision as he sees nothing beyond a lone Shell service station with a flickering sign. He waits at the light and sees nothing but a pitch black, snow covered two lane road to his left, and the same to his right. He decides to pull into the gas station and just stop for a minute. 

“Fuck,” Link whimpers as he attempts to turn and his tires catch on the fresh fallen snow and hold him in place. He steps on the gas and his car goes nowhere, the wheels cry out in pain as he floors it. He’s stuck at the exit. He flings open the heavy door in a near panic and a blustery mix of snow and wind hits him head on, causing him to quickly close it again. 

He leans against the steering wheel, trembling and cold, and takes a steadying breath. Tears prick his eyes and he digs his nails into his jeans. “Rhett, I wish you were here," he whispers to nobody.

Link thinks about how much he longs to be with Rhett right now, how they'd be pulling into Momma Di’s house and getting roped into conversation and hot cocoa. How Link’s mom would be just a few minutes from dragging him into a hug and then scolding him for getting in so late. He will _not_ cry. He's a grown man now, barely four months moved out of his mom's house.

He zips up his coat belligerently. He will get home for Christmas, damn it. He didn’t pass all of his engineering finals and leave at ten pm only to get stuck in snow and spend the night in the freezing cab of his truck. He slides from the truck and sinks into a foot of snow, a violent shiver running through him. 

He trudges across the road and stomps up to the door of the Shell station. When the door jingles open pitifully, the woman at the counter looks at him with tired eyes. 

“Hey,” Link gives a tight lipped smile and revels in the semi warmth. 

“Bathrooms are for paying customers,” The woman informs him. 

“You got a phone I can use?” 

“Phone is for paying customers,” The woman points to the counter. “Usually,” she says after a beat. 

“T-thanks,” Link nods, trying his best not to track snow across the store. He grabs the phone and dials the number for the dorm phone. There’s a phone on every floor, and whoever hears it serves as the one shot in the dark you have at connecting to the person you’re trying to reach. It rings five times and Link’s almost crying before he finally hears 

“Hello?” 

“Finally, I mean, hey, it’s Link from 1024, who is this?” 

“Hey Link, it’s Robyn! Jim Banford's girlfriend,” Robyn says, “I was just headed to the bathroom.” 

“Uh,” Link’s taken aback from hearing a woman’s voice, “Cool. Can you knock on 1024 and tell Rhett I’m at a stuck at a gas station off exit 1006?” 

“Who’s Rhett?” 

“My best fr- my roommate, he’ll know what to do,” Link pleads. “Room 1024.”

“Okay, you betcha,” Robyn says cheerfully, hanging up before Link can protest. 

“Fuck,” Link murmurs against the dead line. 

“You gonna buy something sweetheart?” The woman behind the counter says not unkindly, dragging Link back into his Artic reality.

Link grabs a packet of pistachios and throws them onto the counter. “These please.” 

\--

Link accepts his fate when he climbs back into his truck at the small exit and tries his engine again. This time, the wheels spin and the exhaust billows up behind him. The truck, however, refuses to move. Link lets out a frustrated sob and curls up into a ball on the seat, letting the engine run to provide some warmth to the trembling of his frame. 

He wakes up some time later after he's cut off the engine, five minutes or half an hour he does not know, and the bright lights of an SUV start to blind him from behind. Link’s hazards continue to blink, surely alerting the car behind him that he’s stuck there. And maybe if Link is lucky, they’ll send another message to this car: “ _ SOS, Man 19, terribly stuck, misses his mom, please help. _ ” If only. 

The car comes confidently to a stop behind him and Link groans. “Go around me, man.” 

But the passenger door of the car swings open and Link quickly locks his doors, flinging himself across the vehicle to manually cram down the locks. “I’m gonna die, that’s it, I’m about to be murdered.” 

He curls back into a ball and hides his face. 

_ Tap, tap, tap _

“Link, man, it’s me,” Rhett’s voice sounds muffled and urgent behind the glass but it instantly snaps Link out of his panic. 

“Rhett!” Link gasps like he’s come up for air, anxiously pulling the lock up and flinging the door open. He jumps into the storm and into Rhett’s arms, wrapping his limbs around Rhett’s firm torso. 

“Woah, Link, are you okay?” Rhett laughs and it sounds like relief, “I’ve got you.”

Link grips onto Rhett’s coat and, despite the wind and snow, the tightness in his chest loosens. “You found me!” 

“Yeah, now get your ass into Derek’s Subaru, okay?” Rhett grabs onto Link’s arm and holds him steady as he grabs his duffle from the back. He doesn’t let go of him until they’re both smushed into the back of Derek’s car.

“Don’t you guys have a final tomorrow morning?” Link immediately worries as Rhett pulls him tight against his chest to warm him up.

“We don’t need to take it, we’re fine in the class. And besides,” Derek says, “With this kind of weather I bet half the class doesn’t show up and the professor will be super lenient.” 

“Yeah, Link, just relax, okay? We’ll get home and we can come back and get your truck when this all melts in a couple days," Rhett rubs his hands down Link's arms in an effort to provide friction. 

Rhett slots himself closer to Link and cards his fingers through Link's hair. Derek turns up the country station and easily gets back onto the highway. Link shudders out a last nervous breath and closes his eyes briefly. He’s suddenly so thankful to not be driving, and to only see the street lights flashing through the window and illuminating the snowflakes hitting the glass.

“I came as soon as Jim’s girl knocked on the door. I grabbed all my stuff and ran to Derek’s dorm,” Rhett’s voice is so low that Link thinks he might not be meant to hear it at all. “I thought about you sitting out here shivering and scared and all logic went out the window. I had to get to you.” 

“Thank you,” Link whispers back. "Love you." 

As far as traumatic incidents go, it was pretty tame. But the pure contrast from the stuck truck to how safe Link feels here, tucked into Rhett’s lap in the car of a kid he’s met twice, makes it feel like it was much worse. That warm, light feeling from earlier floods back through him. It’s easier to pinpoint now, the love warm in his mouth. It feels like safety, like home, like his person. 

He watches the storm rage in the outside world and focuses on the strong hand on the small of his back. He presses his lips to Rhett’s shoulder and tries to let him know how much he loves him through the gesture. They’ll be home soon. 


End file.
